The Arkansaw traveler., 1887-07-23
SARAH WINNEMUCCA'S
 RIDE.

The next day, waiting for'the seat tered companies to come together, l was sitting with Captain Bernard at about 5:30 pm. in little room at the station, when it was reported that mounted party was coming towards us from the west. It soon proved to be our messenger to the Flutes, Sarah Winnemucca, with her companions. She came ahead of them riding very rapidly. At first she could hardly speak for crying, she was so weary and excited.
 The following condensed account was crowded into a paragraph and re- corded in the journal of the day:
 About 5:30 p. m., Sarah Winne- mucca came in, riding fast; had been to hostile camp: brought out her fla ther and brother; others followed, and were pursued, overtaken, and taken back. She heard firing, and fears her brother Lee was killed; says Matches aided the white men to escape from the camp, and went with them. She reports Oytes and Egan, with their bands, still detained in hostile camp; says arms and plunder were offered to tempt them to join hostiles; then threats and coercion were tried: To- cates camp near Juniper Lakes, Stein's Mountain; gives number at about seven hundred: brought her sisterin- law into our camp, and implores help for her father, whom she left behind with few men and guns guarding the fugitive women and children"
 may now add that Sarah's story, so far as subsequent information and evidence could affirm it, proved to be literally true. It is of sufficient his toric interest to introduce here few of those graphic incidents which she herself has since recorded:
 I've [Sarah and the Indians George and John, Piutes] followed the trail down the Owyhee River as much as fifteen miles, and then we came to where they had camped, and where they had been weeping and cutting their hair. So we knew that Buffalo Horn rthe Bannock leader] had been killed" There were other indications of great grief, besides the locks of hair on the ground; namely, pieces of m0n- to and clothing, and numerous beads broken from the strings and strewn around They found on the trail the whip of the stage driver who had been killed, and other articles from time to time, which made the blind trail when crossing the rocky beds, easier to fol- low.
 The first ranch the party came to had been owned by frontier settler, MT. G. B. Crawley. Everything com bustible had been burned, but there was still considerable fire and fresh tracks about the premises. After de- laying here to take little food and rest, they determined to follow the fresher of two branching tfails. This led them towards Stein's Mountain. That day they picked up a clock and a fiddle, and shot a mountain sheep some strips from which added to their supplies. They were then near Juni- per lakes. Five miles farther on they caught a glimpse of two people, dressed like Indians, on the slope of the mountain. Sarah's account of this meeting is unique:
 "As we came nearer to them, 1 said to George, Call to them He did so. I saw them rise to their feet. waved my handk rchief at them again, and one of them called out, Who are you?' I said, Your sister Sarah.' It was Lee Winnemucca, my brother who had called out
 Lee said, @ dear sister, you have come to save us, for we are all prison CTS of the Bannocks.'"
 Her brother represented that her fla ther had been treated very badly {: that his friends had been stripped of guns, horses and blankets, and that there was great peril to life to her and her companions. ''For," he said, ''they will surely kill you, as they have said they will kill every one who comes with messages from the white people, for Indians- who come with messages are no friends of ours. They say so every night" Immediately Sarah and her companions were transformed by the using of blankets and putting on of war-paint, into Indians proper: then all together they went or to the grand encampment. 'The mountain We had to go over was very rocky and steep, almost perpendicular. Some times it was very hard for us to climb up on our hands and knees, but we got up at last, and looked down into the hostile encampment. Oh, such sight my eyes met! It was beautiful: 327 lodges, and about 4Jo warriors" Greater numbers were close at hand :: they were down in Little Valley catch ing horses, and some were killing beef This was part of the united camp of the Bannocks and Flutes.
 A little later, Sarah had worked her way into her fathers lodge containing snrnr.aI Pinfn mon, ard rx-o.rnon She